December 2006 Archives

If you're one of the tens of thousands of Americans who thought you might get a job out of Virgin America then, as I'm sure you know by now, your government has decided you shouldn't get that chance.

No, the Department of Transportation, in its infinite majesty, has concluded, after a year or so of pondering, that a company employing exclusively Americans, paying overwhelmingly US taxes, managed entirely by Americans, and bringing innovation, robustness and cheaper pricing to American consumers, through the use of one of the world's most successful brands, is not a fit citizen to do business in the USA.

That's because....umm, well, I'm not exactly sure what that's because. It seems that the DOT has decided that this airline is "not actually controlled" by US citizens. Well, charming guy that Sir Richard Branson is, if the DOT truly believes that he is "controlling" Virgin America then they clearly haven't "actually" talked to him about it. No, Sir Richard is undisputed king of one of the global economy's great machines but a detail-man he is not. Try this wonderful interview if you doubt me. Sadly it's been truncated, but his explanation of gross and net was that gross was the world market for a product by revenue and net was the bit you actually got. (No, really, that's what he said.)

I rather think Virgin America is not going to go away and I hope that it will eventually embarass Congress and the government into doing the right thing. The much-predicted weakening in the US economy (which I personally think has been overdone - the quoted indicators are pretty much in the froth of a major economy) might well fix that.

Lurking behind all this is the issue of open skies in Europe, and particularly London. The Brits take protectionism to new heights over this of course, but it's in a very narrow context - and the UK is arguable the most welcoming place in the world for foreigners to do business. Anyway, it's not really an issue - American, Delta and United can switch to Paris or Frankfurt or Amsterdam or wherever as their main European gateway anytime they like.

The best aviation forum on the planet is www.pprune.org . I've got no vested interest in that at all - it's just a fact. If you don't currently follow it then now would be a good time to start. And this thread is as good a place to begin as any.

London Heathrow this week has been a hideous embarrassment to the UK. Take my word for it, we've got serious fog over here. It's nasty and it hasn't lifted all week - this is not much fun. And, the way technology currently stands, fog is a big problem at capacity-constrained airports. Heathrow is down to about 60% of normal movements, which is catastrophic.

It's catastrophic for technical reasons which, depending on who you are, may be obvious or not very obvious at all. There have been plenty of people in the industry who, through their public pronouncements on the web and even TV this week, have shown that even they don't understand the effect of fog on an airport.

So, asking passengers to understand is not a trivial thing. But, as is its usual way, the air transport industry has treated those people with utter contempt. (Just to be crystal clear, I'm not flying this week and the affair has had no effect on me or anyone I personally I know at all.)

At Heathrow today there were hundreds (I think thousands actually) of people who turned up to find not only that there were tents erected outside the terminal to house them, but that there was no room in the tents! (The airport calls them marquees - everybody else calls them tents, because that's what they are..)

Courtesy of former Boeing Commercial Airplanes chief-Alan Mulally's Ford company, I know from the little gauge in my Ford Mondeo that it was 0 degrees C this morning. His former industry thought it would be a reasonable thing to make people with tickets that cost hundreds of pounds/euros/dollars queue at dawn, with their children, in the street!

Well, indirectly I make my living from the air transport industry and I'm ashamed of it. But, as you'll see from the link at the top of the post, there are plenty in the industry who just don't get it.

Well, my fellow blogger Addison Schonland over at IAG is not stupid and realises that if he gives me a namecheck then I'll do the decent thing. So please follow his excellent blog - I do, and he's given me plenty of thought-provoking moments (although I'm easily provoked - see the post that I'm just about to create above this one.)

Addison draws attention to Virgin America's Alpha+ pass of the FAA's operations test. No surprise really, but the fact is that the recent US election result has played against the airline by giving people like Democrat Representative (of a small group of Minnesotans) James Oberstar the opportunity to destroy another few thousand American jobs. As a result I'm not sure what the airline's chances of getting off the ground actually are.

The West Factory at Airbus's Broughton site was eerily quiet last week, when UK ministers and top management executives converged in North Wales to announce the ｣34 million Integrated Wing research programme to investigate and eventually produce technologies to be used on Airbus's A320 replacement.

The Marie-Celeste atmosphere could partly be explained by the special event that day, as workers left their tasks to line up and meet their new (-ish) boss Louis Gallois, for the first time, as well as UK trade and industry secretary Alistair Darling, and Wales's first minister Rhodri Morgan.

But Airbus executives admit that the delays to the A380 programme mean the A380 wing manufacture site is now full to capacity, with completed wing sets ready and waiting for the green light from Toulouse to ship them. Production, as such, has effectively halted on the A380 wings, apart from those for the first freighter version aircraft. On the passenger versions activity is limited to modification work. 

The A380 hangar may be quiet at the moment, but it is certainly impressive, and in stark contrast to the site's East Factory, where A320, A330 and A340 aircraft wings are being built - here the atmosphere is one of buzzing activity. Workers have been redeployed here, as well as to Airbus's other sites at Hamburg and Toulouse, while A380 wing production has been put on hold. They'll be gradually returning throughout 2007 as production ramps up again.

Still, the hold-ups must be unsettling for staff at the site, which provides around 7,000 jobs for local people. So the announcement of the Integrated Wing project, which will provide work at Broughton when it moves from the research to the technology demonstration phase in three years, is timely. Gallois spoke enthusiastically about the importance of the UK to the company as a whole as the wing centre of excellence - although he refused to confirm that A350XWB wings will be produced here - and Wales' first minister Rhodri Morgan emphasised Wales's commitment to Airbus. And the UK trade and industry secretary Alistair Darling praised the UK engineering and technology skills that allow it to contribute such an important part of the A380 - capabilities that UK industry must maintain, he argued.

I'm sure none of the engineers and technicians listening would disagree with this sentiment - but most of them would probably have preferred it if he (or his speechwriter) had been able to distinguish between the A380 and A320 programmes. Unless they know something we don't about the "problems with the A320" that he is confident Airbus can quickly resolve�

As the first of the four Nordic nations to receive its new multi-role helicopters, Denmark is justifiably proud of its EH101 fleet. So much so, in fact, that its air force invited a trio of British journalists to ride aboard as its newest example was delivered last month. Too good an offer to refuse at the best of times, but with Flight International about to publish a package of Nordic special features, I jumped at the chance to travel with M-512.

There would, however, be a couple of unusual conditions for the guests to come to terms with: we would have to wear rubber, and might well have to cross our legs for a bit…

The EH101 is no ordinary helicopter, and ours was to be a long journey, taking us from AgustaWestland's Yeovil manufacturing site in Somerset directly to the home of the Royal Danish Air Force's (RDAF) 722 Sqn: Karup airbase. In total, the engines would be running for 4h 20min, and the flight would be interrupted only by a brief leg stretch - but no prospect of a comfort break - on the deck of a North Sea oil rig.

I guess it highlights my limited experience in flying helicopters over large expanses of water, but my first time wearing an immersion suit was to be an entertaining one. We climbed into our strange attire to strangled cries of "Bring out the Gimp" (a reference to an undesirable character in Quentin Tarantino's 'Pulp Fiction'), while deep down we were all wondering the same thing: where's the toilet on an EH101? You guessed it; there isn't one.

The immersion suit certainly isn't one of the most attractive items a person could choose to wear, but it's probably a lot better than chinos and a smart shirt if you have to ditch in the North Sea. And trust me, the cable you can see in the photo isn't heading anywhere suspicious…

The RDAF is within three months of flying its first search and rescue (SAR) missions with the EH101 Joint Supporter from Karup, with eight of the type to progressively replace the service's 40-year-old Sikorsky S-61s. But we were bringing home Denmark's fourth of six tactical troop transport (TTT) examples, which will provide the Danish armed forces with a new battlefield capability from early next decade.

Up front for our flight was an unusual combination. In the left seat was Bak, a former Danish army Hughes 500 pilot and fixed-wing instructor, with SAR instructor Jøl - a former Saab Draken and Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter pilot - alongside him. Also aboard were a further three Danish personnel.

We took off from Yeovil at 09:31 on 17 November, with our route appropriately taking us over the nearby Royal Naval Air Station at Yeovilton and then past Royal Air Force bases Lyneham, Fairford and Brize Norton. We then passed to the north of London, came close to RAF Lakenheath and then headed out over the coast near Lowestoft at 10:45. While on the way at 5,000ft (1,520m), we also got the chance to try out some of the Joint Supporter's gleaming mission equipment, and I was able to put a quick call into the office using the aircraft's Iridium satellite phone; part of a diverse communications suite which will meet the demands of both SAR and battlefield transport duties.

Our speed was initially restricted to 120kt (222kt) due to our heavy take-off weight of 15,200kg (33,500lb); just 400kg short of the type's maximum, but this later rose to around 150kt after some of our 3,900kg fuel load began to burn off. In fact, with a strong tail wind aiding our progress, over the open water we actually achieved an indicated air speed of 197kt, frustratingly close to equaling the 200kt only achieved once before by the RDAF's EH101s.

I've never experienced this before, but our crew complained during the flight that we weren't burning enough fuel. Our initial plan - key to being able to make it directly to Karup without refuelling on the way - was to switch off one of our three engines to cut fuel consumption during the cruise. But because of our high speed we were unable to do this until after we made a brief stop on the Halfdan Alpha rig in the Danish sector of the North Sea. This was another first for me, and I was subsequently assured that the "moderate" wind speed of 26mph on the helideck - with gusts attempting to knock you off your feet - was making it quite a pleasant day out there. Not somewhere I'd want to holiday though, thanks all the same!

After a brief period of flight on two engines, we went low level along the stunning west coast of the Jutland peninsula at 200ft, before heading inland to demonstrate the capabilities of the TTT's laser obstacle warning system. It's a bad thing to ask a helicopter pilot to show off this sort of system, and we were soon heading straight at a 1,200ft-tall TV mast, with cautions and warnings blaring out as I sank that little bit lower in the cockpit jump seat. At least the kit works though! Finally, we used the aircraft's autopilot to pick up the ILS signal from Karup and automatically descended down the glide path, settling 70ft above the runway centre line, slightly nose up and at a forward speed of 60kt before Bak took control. That's a capability I'd already witnessed on a Royal Navy EH101 Merlin HM1 flight into RNAS Culdrose earlier this year, and is a reassuring club to have in the bag.

As with my two previous flights in an EH101, the flight was enjoyable and didn't feel like a long time to be on a helicopter, which bodes well for crews on future SAR missions. It did take about five hours for the immersion suit pinch marks on my wrists to fade away after we reached Karup, but thankfully as I passed on the offers of coffee until 30min from landing that was the only drama I experienced in wearing it!

In some later e-mail correspondence, one of our RDAF hosts noted: "Thank you for flying Royal Danish Airlines - hope to see you onboard again another time". I'll be waiting for my next invitation too; maybe a SAR trip next time wearing a nice orange suit?

Unsurprisingly Randy Baseler at Boeing is using his blog to react rapidly to Airbus' A350 commitment. Much of what he says is as you'd imagine, but he compares the 787/A350 situation with the A340/777 in a way that I'm not so sure holds up.

Randy is keen to knock down the idea that there are advantages to being second in the market. His target today is the notion that the latecomer can make technical changes after watching the experience of the leader, as shown by the way the 777, two years after the A340, overtook it in the market.

He says that's not right because the key factor was a "technology breakthrough" in propulsion that let Boeing commit exclusively to a twin two years later. Airbus, he says, is five years behind with no comparable breakthrough in sight. But I wonder about that (no argument about the timescales obviously).

There wasn't really a technology breakthrough involved - more a case of years of development, mountains of data, and evolving regulatory thinking coming to a head at the right time. And the exact timing was heavily driven by Boeing's powerful - and knowledge-backed - lobbying. I think being second hugely helped Boeing make the twin commitment - by then they had even more data, and more current data, on twins; they could talk to the airlines at a crucial time when they were also trying to understand the risks; and they could drive the regulatory agenda.

Does that have parallels this time. Well, maybe. Airbus will be able to see just how tough the composites manufacturing task is for Boeing, and will even get some experience of how the material stands up in service. They'll find out whether the new cabin advances - lower cabin-altitude, increased humidity, mood-lighting and so on - actually matter much and if they affect costs. And they'll benefit from the shakedown of all the new technologies and common components that the 787 will pioneer.

Believe me I'm not suggesting that Airbus is in a happy position. But I think Randy knows that there really are advantages to being second.

I've almost lost count of how many A350 "launches" I've reported on now (its four). But the message from Airbus in Paris yesterday was that this is the last and the best.

The first was the commercial launch in December 2004 of A350 Mk1 - basically a cheap and cheerful, warmed-up A330. By the time this model got its industrial launch in October 2005 - it was almost an all-new aircraft - but the key word there is "almost" - and almost wasn't good enough for the likes of Steve Hazy, Tim Clark and Chew Choon Seng. So fast forward to Farnborough in July and the unveiling of A350 Mk2 - the "XWB" was all new with a wider cabin and new wing - and more than double the development costs - but the customers now liked what they saw.

So yesterday in Paris we had the briefing supporting Friday's second A350 industrial launch and this time, hopefully it's the last.

But was all this necessary? I spoke to a senior airline CEO shortly after Airbus had first briefed potential customers on the original A350 in Autumn 2004 and his message was clear even then - what they were proposing wasn't good enough and only an all-new design would suffice if Airbus was going to take on the Boeing 787.

But Airbus thought it knew best and pressed ahead with the warmed up A330 version for more than 18 months - the result: Airbus now finally has a competitive product but has squandered three years of availability (the original was set for service entry in 2010 while this one won't show up at airport terminals until mid-2013 at best). And the sales advantage that this muddled thinking has handed Boeing is another story. And none of it was really necessary, was it?

Airbus CEO Louis Gallois said that "sometimes the best things are worth waiting for" - for Airbus's sake he has to be right.